Keeping you up to date with the latest The Sims news!

The UK duo Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West, better known as “Oh Wonder”, have shared snippets of themselves recording a brand new Simlish song on Instagram! We can assume the song ‘Ultralife’ will be featured in an upcoming game or trailer soon *anyone else thinking Pets?* Check out the behind the scenes snippets below. Video originally from SimsVIP

So, I guess you could say my first year of Blogging went pretty well. In fact, not pretty well; It went great! Over the past year I’ve made tons of friends not just on this Blog but over on twitter too, I can confidently say The Sims community is AMAZING! Everyone is so welcoming and kind (Something that made my first year on here feel so great) And everyone is SO helpful! SimsVIP, The Sims community, SimsOnline, EnglishSimmer and many more Simmers have helped me overcome this first year with ease! I certainly wouldn’t be here without the SimGuru’s who have also been so helpful the past year! They are always up for a good chat on Twitter, they gave me two interviews, helped me with advice in chats and are just so friendly! I’d also like to thank everyone who gave me their responses below! And Of course all of you who read this Blog because I wouldn’t be here without you!

I couldn’t hold a giveaway this year due to some problems outside of my Simming life and I was kind of disappointed about that. I still wanted to do SOMETHING for you guys, so I came up with the idea to post some peoples favourite memories of The Sims and, Lets just say some of them were ‘interesting’ Lets get started shall we?

SimGuru Sarah

Playing the Game – In The Sims 2 I had spent a bunch of time in CAS making the perfect Sim. She was a little sad about being single, so she decided to cheer herself up with Baked Alaska. When it came time to light it on fire she fumbled and dropped it all her over self! Fire! She was on fire! And since she lived alone there was nothing I could do but watch her burn ;_; At the time it was very traumatizing, but after all these years it has remained a really memorable anecdote (it makes me giggle even now) as it illustrates the randomness of The Sims, and how sometimes even we as Gods are powerless within the simulation.

English Simmer

My very best memory of The Sims franchise over the past 16 years has been the creativity it has brought into my life. The Sims is a game that has infinite possibilities for the infinite players. I’ve played hundreds of families, with all The Sims games and I have loved every single one. The stories are endless

SIMLINKS

Oh god…too many memories with the sims. I think the best memory would be playing with my sims and working my way up to the top of their perfection and because im a builder, building their dream homes and living their lives.

Cinderellimouse

I have so many memories of the Sims, it’s hard to pick one, there have been so many nice moments with my friends in the community. One memory that does stand out is how excited I was when I realised Sim Gurus Tatertot and Copeland were hinting that we were getting cows in a store set. I was so excited my heart was racing and I couldn’t breathe! XD It’s a nice memory because it reminds me of how much fun we used to have trying to guess the next store sets.

Simified

My best memory for The Sims was always getting a new expansion pack, running home to install it, and hearing the new music that played when the game was loading. Such fun! And while the music doesn’t change in The Sims 4 (or at least not yet) it’s still just as exciting even 16 years later!

Iron Seagull

It’s very hard to choose just one! But I’ll go with a crazy memory from The Sims 3. I was playing as an inventor, and he was on a date which was going pretty well. The junkyard was on the way back home, so I thought “Hey, might as well quickly stop there,” even though he was still with his date. This junkyard was quite small…I had my inventor go up to detonate one scrap pile, thinking it wouldn’t matter much. Imagine the look on my face when it caused a chain reaction, blowing up the entire junkyard and my two sims! I then got a notification from his date saying something like “Someone in this group has serious issues they need to sort out, I’m out of here.” I was laughing so hard! Only in The Sims could I act out such a bizarre scenario.

Simmaze

My best memory of the sims game would be when I had The Sims 2 on GameCube … I was able to create sims as my family. Then build a house that matched ours. But the best this that I loved about to game was … There were goals in the game. Goals to become a better sim. I had so much fun trying to reach my goals. & the more goals I met the better my sim was & career. Till there was no more goals & I was swimming in money.

Make a Wish

With the release of The Sims 4 Romantic Garden Stuff*, Sims have access to the Whispering Wishing Well, which will alter the fate of your Sim’s lives forever should you dare approach it. Sims can choose from nine different things to wish for, including happiness, romance, youth, simoleons, and more. Be careful what you wish for; those wishes lead to over 50 different outcomes based on the temperament of the well (yes, it’s sentient, and it’s known to be quite moody).

Here are some of our favorite sequences of events…

Sims can get a bad romance. Happily, a wish for romance can result in the appearance of a perfect partner with a loving relationship already established. But what happens when wishing for romance when the Whispering Wishing Well is in a foul mood? Well, you may just end up with a new enemy… with benefits. Through a swirling grey and pink puff of smoke emerges a new romantic partner, who your Sim finds completely contemptable but inexplicably attractive. Sparks will definitely fly in this torrid love affair that offers the chance to experience one of the rarest relationship types in the game!

Simoleons can come at a cost. If your Sim’s wildest dreams come true, they may just win the lottery and get showered by simoleons spewing from the well’s maw. However, at times the Whispering Wishing Well enjoys toying with Sim’s whims, and may twist their words against them unexpectedly. One such example is when a Sim wishes for simoleons… instead of simply granting the wish, the well instead presents the Sim with an interesting moral dilemma. It offers up a juicy morsel of gossip, a rumor so vile that if you threatened another Sim with exposing this secret they’d surely pay to ensure your silence. Is blackmailing your way to riches with a trail of enemies in your wake a path you’ll choose to take? This new interaction leaves the choice in your control.

Sims can get a bouncing bundle of BOO! A Sim that’s a prospective parent may use the Whispering Wishing Well to wish for a child in their life, and the well has a number of ways to grant that request. In the perfect scenario, a mini-prodigy pops out of the well equipped with the Genius trait and a zest for life. If the well is feeling particularly grim though, a bile may bubble up and out of its depths, revealing the newest addition to the family… a ghost child! Thankfully the Whispering Wishing Well will listen to a special wish from ghosts as well, which may lead to the following…

Ghostly Sims can be given endless life. A ghost Sim may have been dealt a difficult card in life (or the afterlife), but the Whispering Wishing Well can help. Ghosts can wish for life, and if the well is in an especially generous mood, the ghost Sim may be granted the ultimate reward – a return to the living! Not only will this miraculous revival give the Sim a second chance at life, but a pact will be formed with the Grim Reaper allowing them to escape death in the future. Should they happen to die again from unnatural causes, the Reaper will promptly appear to resurrect them on the spot.

Sims can find happiness to be a curse. The Whispering Wishing Well is known for its perverse sense of humor. There’s perhaps no better example than one particularly delicious case of schadenfreude when the well perceives a Sim as greedily wishing for happiness. One potential outcome sees the Sim lifted off their feet, with the well visibly sucking an aura of happiness out of them, and raining it down into the depths of the well. For the near future the Sim is cursed, with happiness seeping out of them and spreading to other Sims. As those nearby Sims become happier, the cursed Sim sinks further into their malaise. This form of cosmic balance amuses the Whispering Wishing Well. Of course this is only one potential (and drastic) outcome. Not only may your Sim end up walking on sunshine with a very happy moodlet, but all of their happy moodlets will persist even longer than normal for the day!

Experience these moments with your own Sims, and discover so many more when playing with the Whispering Wishing Well (and other fun stuff) in The Sims 4 Romantic Garden Stuff today!

Be Careful What You Wish For!

Birds chirping, plants budding… it’s the season of love, and your Sims can experience it for themselves with The Sims 4 Romantic Garden Stuff Pack*! The stuff pack releases on February 9 and includes new objects and clothing to create the Victorian garden of your dreams.

The Sims 4 Romantic Garden Stuff Pack has a mixture of flowery flora and marble furnishings that enable you to build new styles of parks, or to revitalise your home’s yard. Do you prefer a manicured lawn with trimmed rose bushes and flowers entwined around a wooden trellis? Perhaps instead you want to create your own Victorian inspired botanical gardens, replete with spitting lion fountains and stately Doric columns? All of these items and more empower you to create lush landscapes for romantic moments like dates, proposals, and weddings – or simply to enjoy a lovely afternoon outdoors.

Your Sims can make use of a new Fountain of Gluteus Maximus which serves as far more than a pretty backdrop. Sims can sit along the fountain’s edge and cuddle, even flicking water on each other in a lighthearted show of affection. When feeling especially whimsical they can climb inside to play around, or take it a step further and engage in a spirited bout of splashing with a friend. If feeling particularly mischievous, Sims can go as far as adding soap to the fountain and enjoy watching the water churn into a froth of bubbles.

What’s more, the stuff pack also includes the Whispering Wishing Well, and woe to the Sim who underestimates the power it wields. A single Simoleon is all it takes to cast a wish, be it for happiness, wealth, a child, youth, love, and more… but the Wishing Well is known to be quite temperamental, and one should carefully gauge not only what they wish for, but when they wish for it. Over fifty different outcomes ensure that your Sim’s life may be altered forever… though it may end in rejoicing, or in personal tragedy.

You’ll discover all of these objects when visiting The Lost Gardens of Healing, a brand new Park Venue included in the stuff pack that creates a picturesque backdrop to any romantic story. Your Sims will want to look their best when visiting, and modern floral fashion and hairstyles will help you give them a proper spring makeover. As they stroll the park’s grounds they’ll be serenaded by the new Baroque radio station, which includes a lovely melody of music inspired by the 1600s to set the mood.

The Sims 4 Romantic Garden Stuff Pack releases on February 9th – come take a stroll through its gardens and see if it’s everything you wished for!

We have a short and sweet release this fine 7th of January, like a New Year’s Eve peck – just a quick welcome to 2016!

Around the corner, I hear Sims are prepping the popcorn for their movie relaxations (just remember, if the bunny in the woods is too much, just call on the super kids to battle the dancing undead).

And with that warning out of the way, we have a bit of NEW…

We have modified the way in which Sims react to those acting inappropriately in their neighbors’ homes. Beware, for you might find your Sim asked to leave if they get out of line.

We have also modified the behavior of Sims when a fight occurs.

Your friends may cheer you on, but your enemies may cheer when you’re down.

There are 8 new wall decorations to decorate your décor! (ok, well, they don’t decorate the décor, they add to the décor… I really just wanted to ignore the conventions of grammar and write what I wanted to write. There… I admitted it, I ignore grammar!)

Movie posters for It’s Amber!, Stay Weirder, Cow Plant Love, Cop and Llama, Malpractice, Epic Wood, Sul Sul, and Still Life, are all now available in the Build catalog.

… And have addressed a few Issues…

The repair service will no longer become unavailable if the player switches active households while the repair service was in progress.

The repair service is no longer available to not service a retail lot.

It is now not available, as it was not repairing. Thus, the service will now not charge you for not repairing, when you attempted to have a repair service, service your repairs.

We fixed an issue that could result when connecting or reconnecting online, in an interface misalignment in the My Library tab of the Gallery.

Essentially, interface elements were not redrawing properly, and were overlapping in ways that made parts of the interface inaccessible.

In-acc-sess-ible is so much more fun to say when you accent each syllable.

We have addressed an issue that could allow users to modify existing lots and upload them as their own.

Without going into too much detail, through a means of saving, deleting, and re-uploading, it was possible for the owner ID to be “lost” and thus allow the owner modification to occur.

Sims can now chat with children playing on a jungle gym without route failing.

… of course I thought the whole purpose of the park was to let your kids run free, while you found peace in the nature inspired sanctuary of silence…

“Dad?!”

Blissful, golden silence…

“DAD!!!”

SILENCE!

“DAD?!”

“What?!”

“Nuh-thing.”

We fixed an issue with the DJ booth that could result in the upgrade action failing to perform, but still deducting the parts from the Sims’ inventory.

I hope you had a pleasant December, and wish you joy as we move into the beginnings of this new year.
-SimGuruGnome

[Posted on behalf of SimGuruGnome who was busy making popcorn for the team to eat.]